Aneese- Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage

Book Blog Four

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. N. pag. Print.

                  Unlucky or lucky? I'll leave that for you to decide. But what Happened? During one beautiful morning, the construction workers were out making noise. In the usual drill, Phineas Gage has to shoot an iron rod down, under the floor. But an accident happened. The iron rod accidentally shot up and went through his cheek, and up and out through the top of his head. This is what the accident looked like: ‫

He then rushes to the hospital where Dr. Harlow, who then writes an article on Phineas’ accident, examines him. The people at Harvard medical school, in Boston, are fascinated and would like to see him. He then goes to Boston. At that time, 1848, the doctors didn't know that there is a such think as bacteria that can go into your body through cuts in the skin. Plenty of bacteria have now gone into Phineas’ body through those two holes in his skull. Phineas then suffered a series of severe seizures. But this doesn't stop him from doing things. He goes to Chile next and becomes a horse rider. He still drove and worked. A couple seizures didn't stop him. Until they for very severe… what happens next? Will he survive? Does this accident make a change in medicine? Read the book to find out.

This book takes place on 1848, in Cavendish, Vermont, Harvard medical school, Boston, Chile, and San Francisco. P.1, p. 23, P. 48, P. 59

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 1. Print.

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 23. Print.

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 48. Print.

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 59. Print.

This historical time period affects the individual because of the doctor’s poor knowledge in medicine and their outmoded treatments. Because doctor knew so little at that time, Phineas wasn't able to get the proper treatment and suffered a series of severe seizures. Now, doctors know much more about the brain. They could have, for one, stitched it up, just to close it, and then don't proper surgeries required. John states in the book that "the doctors knowledge of the brain was very poor at that time. They could only give him useless drugs". P.32

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 32. Print.

-Trauma: a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. P. 63

-Outmoded: old fashioned. P. 52

-Boca’s area: a region of the brain concerned with the production of speech, located in the cortex of the dominant frontal lobe. P. 72

-Temporal lope: each of the paired lobes of the brain lying beneath the temples, including areas concerned with the understanding of speech. P.72

-Wernicke's area: a region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language, located in the cortex of the dominant temporal lobe. P.72

I would rate this book a 6.5/10. I really did enjoy the story and was eager to learn more about Phineas gage. But, the story got really boring on some parts off topic, not related to the story. For example, the author would be talking about Phineas’ brain, and then he would move on to the brain cells and go on and on, and it just got boring, though I did like learning about the past-tense treatments and how doctors dealer with things.  I would recommend this to a friend that is interested in the brain, the damage of the brain, and the past-tense treatments. Phineas was an important person through history because he changed brain medicine. Because of him, people now know much more about the brain then they used to.